OH, I love, love, love this. I've been smitten with alternative technology and building for 20 or so years. I'm finally living in Belize (my happy place), and we hope to start on our earthbag house when the dry season comes.
So, I have a question, and I'm wondering if you have thoughts. I have an earth bag builder whose opinion I can also ask, but I'm hoping to get a variety of opinions. I have always wanted to do a round house, but when I began designing, I realized that what made the most sense for us was a doughnut. An open floor plan won't work for us because there are five of us. Anyway, I really want a doughnut with a little courtyard in the middle. My concern is a seven month rainy season. Am I asking for trouble with flooding in the courtyard? Maybe I can do some kind of retractable dome or cover over the center? I'm kind of attached to the courtyard idea but not enough to deal with water damage or drainage problems. Were in southern Belize, so it's subtropical not fully tropical. Now I need to go back and read all these other articles!
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oh my @solarsupermama .. what a coincidence!!! You may be surprised to hear that what you are describing is exactly what I was going to build before I changed my plans!!! Earthbag is amazing and also a hybrid of tyre foundations with earthbag is also the way to go.
Let me start by showing you the plan that i had seen online of a similar idea! Note that this is kind of a spiral rather than donut. I think it adds a great dimension to the space.
THis plan has the same centre garden idea, I its one of the things i like most about this design. If you have windows on the inside you will be able to see the garden from all parts of the house. Note that you have access from the whole house too if you want, including the bedroom which backs onto it.
Now, drainage is a major issue is for sure! What I would reccomend is that you firstly have the entire level of the ground in the core around 1 ft below the floor level of the house. Then that ground should be slightly angled toward the natural drainage line of the land.
Before you even start you will want to fit several big drainage pipes underground that are at least 10" wide and spread around. THere should be more of them where the slope of the land will funnel it during heavy rains. The trick will be doing this before the build happens and making sure the pipes are strong enough (metal ideally) that they won't break under pressure from the walls sitting close on top. Obviously the drainage pipes will need to be dig in on a gentle slope and so doing this on a sloped piece of land may help if you work with it.
Needless to say that if you have that much rain, the best way to go is to use a tyre foundation with a good epdm membrane enveloping at least the first few feet of the walls going down and under the first course of tyres. You can do the same for the floor area, oR you can also raise the floor 1-2 feet using large stones and then smaller stones and finally cement to prevent wicking.
Here is that part of the blog if you are interested!
Very best of luck!
https://steemit.com/blog/@eco-alex/the-remarkable-diary-of-an-ecobuilder-part-5-a-plan-and-vision-was-born
Oh my, this is so, so helpful!!!!! Thank you so much for sharing all this knowledge! Drainage pipes is a great solution! I am so glad I found you!!
feel free to ask anything anytime or email me on [email protected] .. im happy to help people!
Thank you so much! I know I'll have lots more questions as time goes on. Your articles are super informative. Being on the coast in a hurricane zone, I think the tires will be a really good idea for the foundation.
yes definitely good for hurricanes.. most important will be your roof and choosing a strong and durable option..
Definitely. Lots of good, local knowledge on that one thankfully.
OH, and I have to say, that bath. So beautiful. Makes me wanna cry. Earthen bathtub is way up there on my list.
oh that bath is the highlight ;=) it's actually a jacuzzi and runs totally on solar. The water is heated with solar, and the power is also photovoltaic.
I love it because the tables are turned. At the end of the day the water is already hot and ready to go.. it is a waste NOT to have a piping hot bath here many nights! ;-))
mine isnt earthen in the end.. for various reasons, but i did do it once.. Its fun to be able to sculpt your tub! watch our for the ergonomics though, mine wasn't the most comfortable to be honest ;-) it was the shape of a pair of lips, lol!
Most excellent tip! I will research ergonomics before shaping! And, yes, I'm super excited to have solar hot water. Right now we have an instant water heater fueled by butane. I'm ready to make the switch!
yes.. and i have a gas heater like yours as backup! there are times when we have weeks of cloud.. so we can use it if we really need.. we hardly use it most of the year..